Japan wants tsunami boat back from N. California

A small boat that washed up in Northern California after the massive 2011 tsunami that hit Japan has been claimed by a city that was devastated in the disaster.

The Triplicate newspaper reports that officials in the Japanese city of Rikuzentaka are in a "giddy state of shock" and would love to get the boat back from Crescent City, Calif.

Rikuzentaka spokeswoman Amya Miller says hours after photos of the 20-foot boat were posted to Crescent City's Facebook page, a teacher from the Japanese high school's marine sciences program said the vessel was theirs.

Humboldt State University geologist Lori Dengler says she posted the photos recently after a university librarian translated the name of the high school from the boat.